God's Dwelling Place

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God and

 that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 

--1 Corinthians 3:16

I wrote a post back in 2014 on the above verse.  But recently I gained a more in-depth understanding of what it means to be God's dwelling place.  Perhaps it's because for the past year we've been thinking about moving from this place where we've lived for the past 39 years.  It all started because my neighbor told me they were going to move.  They've lived in the log cabin adjacent to our property for the past 20 years.  That was the first time for me to see the inside of the cabin and I fell in love with it.  So we jumped at the chance of buying it.  When the appraised price was more than this house would sell for we had to decline.  

Because, for the first time, we'd entertained the possibility of moving we decided to look into moving close to our three sons who live about an hour away.  At one point this summer we actually made an offer on a house within walking distance of one of our sons but our offer was beat out by someone else's.  Through this all we've had to reassess what is important to us about where we live.  I've always maintained that where one lives has a huge influence on who we become and what we do with our life.  Too often I feel people ignore this fact and then complain about how unfulfilling their lives are.  So when Christie Purifoy's book, "Placemaker - Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace" came to my attention, I ordered it through my library's lending system.  I'd like to share some quotes from her book.  I thought it was going to be about making a place feel like a home, but turned out to be much more.  She begins with a quote by biologist, Edward O. Wilson:  "The crucial first step to survival in all organisms is habitat selection.  If you get to the right place, everything else is likely to be easier." Then she remarks, "Quite often the 'right place' is, for a season at least, the place where everything is harder, the place where we feel least at home."  Purifoy goes on to write about all the places she has lived and what they meant to her and how that place made them ready for the next place.  Some places did not feel like home at all, but they had their purpose: "The great gift of any spiritual or geographic wilderness is that you lose your habitual sense of purpose....It can feel as if you are only existing aimlessly, but this aimlessness frees you to live in the present and eventually, to dream new dreams."

This year that my husband and I have been looking at houses on Zillow.com has provided us with the experience of living in different sorts of neighborhoods and houses than we live in now.  The exercise of looking at the photos on-line, imagining whether we'd have to downsize and what we're willing to give up, and what we'd gain by moving has been a learning experience without having to make the move!  With each house that appealed to me, I imagined living there.  With on-line maps I could see what shopping was nearby, parks with trails, how close was the library, etc.  These many months later we now realize we would not have been happy in that house we didn't get.  If we had to move, we could have made the most of it, but that's the thing.  We don't have to move.  

But we do need to grow and that is something I can do right here.  I've learned more about myself and about what is important and what is not.  There may come a time that it will be right to move, but not now.  Instead, I'm going to let Purifoy's following words about Place sink in, "God longs for the place He has chosen as a dwelling for His Name.  First there was a garden.  Then there was a great land.  There was a tribe, a tent, an ark, a temple.  There was a city, a Son, and a church.  Today there is me.  Today, there is you.  So many homes God has had, and to each one of us He says, I am knocking.  Please let me in.  You are my home.  I am your home.  Remain in me."  

We can find what we thought we were searching for right here.   

Father, where I live has consequences for me, but in the end what matters is the home I make for You in my life.  May it be a place of comfort, beauty, and peace.

Link to scripture:  John 15:5

Take action:  Be God's Song